The present invention is directed towards improvements in cable clamps. More particularly, the invention is concerned with an improved multi-strand cable clamp featuring positive strand engagement.
Applicant has already described in his U.S. Pat. No. 4,014,504 of Mar. 29, 1977 a hooking device for holding a wire or the like from a suspended cable, such as a guy wire which runs between poles on a street and generally consists of a multi-strand cable. This hooking device comprises a pair of opposingly disposed plate members having respective end edges and lateral edges and arranged one over the other with the respective end edges facing one another, one end edge of each plate member being bent to define a jaw means for gripping the multistrand cable and having fingers asymmetrically formed therealong, the other end edges of the plate members abutting one another whereby to act as a hinge for moving the jaw means between open and closed positions. Releasable coupling means interconnect the plate members and are operable to bias the jaw means to the closed position for releasably securing the cable in clamping engagement between the jaw means with the asymmetrically formed fingers interdigitating, the coupling means including a bolt having a longitudinal axis extending perpendicular to the plate members. The hooking device further comprises at least one hooking member for holding the wire or the like, the hooking member having a connecting end, a stem portion and a hooking end, the connecting end being mounted between the plate members to the bolt with the stem portion extending generally perpendicular to the bolt and out of the coupled plate members through one of the other end edges and lateral edges thereof, the other end edges and lateral edges each having guide means for orienting and maintaining a hooking member substantially perpendicular to and parallel to the cable, respectively.
The above hooking device is conveniently used for connecting a TV cable from a house directly to a nearby guy wire running between poles on a street where such poles are spaced too far from one another and it is impossible to secure the TV cable to a pole without a major portion of the cable sagging to an undesirable extent. Applicant has found that even if the device is tightly clamped to the guy wire, it may still pivot under tension about the guy wire in adverse weather conditions, causing the hooking device to slide along the guy wire and to thus damage the trunk cable extending closely parallel to the guy wire and also to interfere with the lashing wire which lashes the trunk cable to the guy wire. In addition, any sliding of the hooking device along the guy wire will increase the sagging of the TV cable, which may be hazardous to moving vehicles particularly in the case of steel messenger TV cables, and also cause signal interference in the cable.
The same problems also occur with other types of clamps, such as the lashing clamps which are used to secure the dead-end of a lashing wire to a guy wire. These generally comprise a pair of clamping plates with a bolt and nut cooperating to bias the plates towards one another so as to clamp the guy wire therebetween, the dead-end of the lashing wire being connected to the portion of the bolt which projects from one of the plates. Since there are no positive strand engagement means, the clamps tend to rotate with respect to the guy wire and also to slide therealong.